Kentucky Refuses to Pass Anti-Animal Welfare Bill

Last week, the southern state said no to an ag-gag bill that would criminalize undercover factory farm investigations.

In March, Kentucky lawmakers covertly passed a piece of ag-gag legislation in the House that would prohibit undercover factory farm investigations by adding it to a bill that was supposed to make the euthanasia process on farms more humane. “To take a simple bill and make it something much more complicated, and maybe even unconstitutional, is certainly disturbing,” said the bill’s sponsor, Representative Joni Jenkins. “I would hope it just dies.” Fortunately, Jenkins got her wish and the ag-gag bill was denied passage by the Senate last week on April 15. Undercover investigations have served as a crucial method for unveiling the cruel treatment of animals on factory farms, and in the past they’ve led to animal-welfare legislation being written, arrests being made, and the issuing of the biggest meat recall in American history.